Day 8, I didn’t do much during Thursday daytime. In the evening I went to the juggling club (for a bit) and then for dinner with the jugglers. Then I went to a gig, not expecting much, because the invite went something like this:

“There’s this guy we know from Portland, Maine, who is doing his first gig in the city. You should come along. It’s free.”

So I wasn’t expecting all that much, but it turned out to be one of the most surprisingly awesome gigs I’ve ever been to. Nigel Hall was the band leader, but (for me) the real stars were the bass player and drummer.

Caution: low light iPhone photo.

My bike route on Thursday.

On Friday night I went to a board game night, invited by fellow podcasters and New York locals Rym and Scott. On Saturday I went to an all day gaming meet up.

It was, by far, the nerdiest thing I’ve ever done, with the biggest group of the biggest nerds I’ve ever seen.

First I took some pictures in a park.

So, yeah, nerdy board gamers. It felt strange to be a minority in so many ways. I wasn’t overweight, and I wasn’t wearing an ill-fitting black tshirt (thinking it was “smart” clothing), I refused to wear a name tag (what am I? six years old or something?), I didn’t smell, I stood upright, etc, etc.

I might have a superiority complex.

Being the anniversary of 9/11, the city had installed a light installation near the location of the twin towers. I decided to cycle down the East River to get some good shots.

Me and hundreds of other people.

While setting up this shot, someone from Germany who now lives in the city recognized my voice, and asked “Are you Luke Burrage?” This is my first one-in-a-million meeting of a random person who knows me, and didn’t know I was going to be in New York. But just remember, in a city of 15 million people, one in a million meetings like this happen every few hours.